The city’s top lawyer says that Christopher Smitherman isn’t violating ethical rules by serving as both president of the Cincinnati NAACP chapter and a city councilman. / The Enquirer/Liz Dufour

Written by

Amanda Seitz

Enquirer contributor

Christopher Smitherman isn’t violating ethical rules by serving as both president of the Cincinnati NAACP chapter and a city councilman, the city’s top lawyer determined.

A letter from City Solicitor John Curp responding to streetcar advocate and blogger Casey Coston’s concerns about Smitherman said that since the city does not have any contracts with the NAACP, there is no conflict.

The letter, sent to Coston’s lawyer last Thursday, does note Smitherman should not vote on any issues raised in council that directly involve the NAACP.

Paul Nick, the executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, told the Enquirer last week that his staff looked into the issue after reading about Coston’s letter.

“It would be the same rules, for example, if someone also was a member of the board of the American Cancer Society,” Nick said. “Direct incompatibility? No. Abstentions? Yes.”

Curp said Cincinnati currently has no contracts with the NAACP.

“It’s not an issue because we don’t have anything that involves the NAACP in front of city council,” Curp said.

Smitherman said he’s been careful about mixing the two posts. In January, he asked the Ohio Ethics Commission if he was allowed to hire his NAACP secretary to work in his city council office. The commission said yes.

If he was forced to resign from the NAACP, Smitherman said then other fellow council members, like Yvette Simpson who used to serve on the board for the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati, would have to follow suit. Smitherman said this would be an unnecessary measure.

“All of us would have to resign from everything we’re doing,” Smitherman said.

The attacks, Smitherman believes, are coming as a result of his opposition to the streetcar.

“They don’t like that I’m continuing to ask about the finances,” he said. “I’m not trying to stop the streetcar. I’m just wondering how we’re going to pay for this.”

Last year, under Smitherman’s lead, the NAACP pushed a ballot measure that would have blocked any city funding for the streetcar.

Coston, an avid supporter of the streetcar, denied that his inquiry to the City Solicitor’s office was an attack on Smitherman for his stance on the streetcar.

“Smitherman wants to say this is all about the streetcar, because he is against it or something,” Coston said in an e-mail. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. In case he didn’t hear, the streetcar breaks ground on Friday at 1 p.m.”

Coston, of Over-the-Rhine, did not produce any current examples of conflict of interest in Smitherman’s work as a councilman and NAACP president.